Accuracy of the clinical diagnosis of vascular dementia: a prospective clinical and post-mortem neuropathological study.

Brains from a prospective study of demented patients were investigated post mortem. Of the 27 patients with clinical diagnosis of vascular dementia, 23 showed multiple cerebral infarcts but senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles were absent or in insignificant numbers. This gives an accuracy of 85%, a figure higher than previously documented.